3-D Maps: A Tale of Two Approaches

Even though 3-D mapping is still far from mainstream — the Internet on TV may change that, where it becomes more like gaming — there’s already tremendous competition between Google and Microsoft. It’s interesting to contrast their two differening approaches to building 3-D models of major cities.

Microsoft last year acquired Vexcel, which has a high-powered camera and is now rolling out a large number of cities (”urban core”) each month in Virtual Earth. The rendering process is almost fully atomated says Microsoft.

By contrast, Google has taken a somewhat uncharacteristic community based approach and is relying on third party “developers” to create 3-D models “by hand,” which then can be rated for detail and accuracy (see “model complexity” in the graphic):

Through June, there’s also “build your [school] campus” competition going on, as an example. The Google Earth Blog has a good discussion (with demo video) of Google’s 3-D efforts in Denver, CO.

Over time Google’s approach might prove to be quite effective and it will have created a community of users who are busy helping Google build the application. Google also has been allowing/encouraging content providers to add their content as available layers in Google Earth (e.g., TurnHere and Yelp).

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Related: Here’s more from the Google Earth Blog on the MSFT v. Google “aerial dogfight.”